Persons of Importance in Wordsworth's Life (These sketches are not biographical digests; they present no more than backgrounds which illuminate W' s relationships with people outside his own family and relatives. Well-known writers such as Coleridge, Scott, Southey, De Quincey, Hazlitt, and Keats are excluded.) Sir George Beaumont, landscape painter and patron of art (1753- 1827). Born at Dunmow, Essex; educated at Eton and New College, Oxford; succeeded to the baronetcy in 1762; married in 1778, and toured Italy with his wife in 1782; elected to Parliament in 1790. In 1800 he began the rebuilding of Coleorton Hall. He had been a close friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and was one of the first to detect the merits of Wilkie and Landseer. Among the artists and writers he befriended, in addition to Wordsworth, were Coleridge, Haydon, and the sculptor John Gibson. He admired the landscapes of Wilson and Claude, but his own work rarely rises above the mediocre. His collection began with drawings of English artists such as Wilson and Girtin, and was steadily and discriminatingly augmented with works of the old masters. One of his great ambitions was the establishment of a national gallery, to which he contributed conspicuously, after the purchase of Angerstein's collection by the State, by adding sixteen of his own pictures, including Claudes, Rembrandts, and Wilkie's 'The Blind Fiddler'. Thomas Clarkson, anti-slavery agitator (1760-1846). Son of the headmaster of Wisbech Grammar School, he was educated at St Paul's School and StJohn's, Cambridge. The subject of his prize­ wining Latin essay set the course of his life. Its translation made him many friends, and led to his acquaintance with William Wilberforce. After being appointed to the committee for the suppression of the slave trade, Clarkson stayed in Paris six months, unsuccessfully endeavouring to win the support of the French Government. His health undermined by extensive 223 224 A Wordsworth Chronology travelling in England to collect evidence for his cause, he was compelled to retire in 1794. Nine years later he rejoined the committee, and the bill for the abolition of the slave trade was passed in January 1807, to receive the royal assent in March. In 1818 he interviewed the Emperor of Russia at Aix-la-Chapelle to secure his influence among the allied sovereigns at the forthcoming conference on ending the slave trade throughout their dominions. He and Wilberforce were made vice-presidents of the Anti-Slavery Society, but Clarkson was unable to play an active role in the movement which led to the passing of the 1833 bill for emancipating slaves within the British Empire. His health had suffered; after a period of total blindness, an operation restored his sight. He was awarded the freedom of the City of London. His last appearance on a public platform was at the Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840, a scene commemorated by the painter Haydon. He died at Playford Hall. Derwent Coleridge (1800-1883): educated at StJohn's, Cambridge; ordained by the Bishop of Exeter in 1825, and soon afterwards made head of Helston Grammar School, Cornwall. His work The Scriptural Character of the English Church was published in 1839. In 1841 he was appointed principal of St Mark's College, Chelsea, newly founded by the National Society; here he placed great emphasis on choral services in the chapel. He was an accomplished linguist. He wrote a biography of his brother Hartley (1849), edited his poetry and prose, and (with his sister Sara) some of his father's works. Hartley Coleridge, poet and periodical writer (1796--1849), was born at Clevedon, Somerset. From his earliest years he showed exceptional propensities for abstract thinking and romantic imaginings. After the separation of his parents, he was brought up in Southey's family, and spoilt by other occupants of Greta Hall. He became a shy young man of small physique, awkward, impatient of control, but a ready and engaging conversationalist. At Oxford the freedom of his views annoyed those in authority; his failure to win the Newdigate Prize did not improve his temperament. He was too partial to wine at parties to retain his Oriel fellowship; in compensation he was allowed £300 at the end of his probationary year. As a teacher at Ambleside, he failed to keep discipline; more self-disciplined in temporary posts at Persons of Importance in Wordsworth's Life 225 Sedbergh, as teacher in 1837 and head in 1838, he worked more commendably. His main literary research was devoted to the works of Massinger and Ford, his edition being published with biographies in 1840. Two volumes of his poetry and prose were collected by his brother Derwent, and appeared in 1851. (Sir) Humphry Davy, scientist (1778-1829), was born and educated at Penzance; he developed very early a love of literature and experimental science. His education was continued privately at Truro. After his father's death, he was apprenticed to a Penzance surgeon, with whom his experimental work continued. In 1798 he was appointed Dr Beddoes' assistant, and given charge of the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol. In 1801 he became assistant lecturer at the Royal Institution, London, director of its chemical laboratory, and editor of its journals. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1803, and its secretary in 1807. His discoveries, and the eloquence of his lectures, drew distinguished audiences. His fame became European; he won the Napoleonic Prize, and was awarded the honorary degree of LL.D. at Trinity College, Dublin. After being knighted in 1812 and marrying a lady of great wealth, his tastes and company became more aristocratic. He had recognised the talents of Faraday, and made him an assistant at the Royal Institution. His scientific work in a variety of fields continued to the end, though today he is remembered chiefly for his safety lamp in mines. In 1818 he was made a baronet, and in 1820 he succeeded Sir Joseph Banks as President of the Royal Society. An apoplectic attack followed by paralysis made him retire to Italy, to which he returned, after a period in England, in 1828. As he was dying (still interested in the electricity of the torpedo), his wife and brother joined him in 1829. He rallied at Rome, but died afterwards at Geneva. Frederick William Faber, hymn-writer and leader of Catholic converts (1814-1863). Soon after Frederick's birth his father became secretary to the Bishop of Durham. F was educated at Bishop Auckland, Kirkby Stephen, Shrewsbury, and Harrow. After two years at Balliol he became a scholar of New College, Oxford, in 1834. He won the Newdigate Prize in 1836, and was made a Fellow of New College in 1837. He was a great admirer of Henry Newman. Ordained deacon in 1837, he took a small reading party to Ambleside, assisted the Revd John Dawes there, and became 226 A Wordsworth Chronology acquainted with W. In 1845, three years after being appointed rector of Elton, Huntingdonshire, he abjured Protestantism and was received into the Catholic Church. He formed a community of converts, which was transferred from Birmingham to Cotton Hall, thanks to the munificence of the Earl of Shrewsbury. From 1849 he was superior of the newly formed London Oratory, which was transferred in 1854 to Brompton, where he died. He is remembered chiefly for his hymns; among his poems will be found one on Loughrigg, and Brathay sonnets. William Godwin (1756--1836), born at Wisbech, son of a Dissenting minister and educated at Haxton Presbyterian College, became a 'complete unbeliever' in 1787, after five years in the ministry. He turned to literature, but it was not until Political Justice (1793) that he achieved fame and temporary fortune; he had read the manuscript of Paine's The Rights of Man, and become friendly with Thomas Holcroft and Horne Tooke. A rationalist, believing in the benevolence of mankind, he wished to sweep away the restraints of social institutions. Nevertheless, after living with the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, he married her five months before she died in giving birth to their daughter, the future Mrs Shelley. After writing his wife's biography, Godwin produced numerous works, including novels, plays, essays, and a 'Life' of Chaucer. The bookshop which he set up in London in 1805 involved him in many difficulties. The most powerful and implicitly revolutionary of his novels is Things as they Are, or the Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794). George Huntly Gordon (1796--1868) was prevented by deafness from entering the Church of Scotland. Sir Walter Scott, for whom he acted as amanuensis, found him a post in 1826 as private secretary to Stephen Rumbold Lushington, Secretary of the Treasury. Later he worked in the Stationery Office. Benjamin Robert Haydon, historical painter (1786--1846), was born at Plymouth. From his grandfather and from his father, a printer and publisher, he inherited a love of painting which was stimulated by a Neapolitan who described works by Raphael and Michelangelo. Needing discipline, he was transferred from a grammar school at Plymouth to another at Plympton. In 1804, determined to be a painter, he left Plymouth for London, where Persons of Importance in Wordsworth's Life 227 he sought advice but worked under no master. Despite successes, and the interest and help of Sir George Beaumont, H quarrelled with the Academy, alienated friends, and accumulated debts. His 'Judgment of Solomon' (1814) restored confidence in him, without making him solvent. For six years the huge canvas of 'Christ's Entry into Jerusalem' was his major preoccupation. He married in 1821, but was continually harassed by creditors. After imprisonment for debt he endeavoured to make a living by portraits and small pictures; later he was more successful in London and northern towns and cities as a lecturer.